Tests of semiconductors are generally carried out in accordance with a method in which a probe card having plural three-dimensional metal terminals (probes) is made to make contact with a bare semiconductor chip. As a method of forming probes on a probe card, plating methods, methods directly using a metal probe, methods using solder, methods where a bonding wire is broken through pulling, and the like can be cited. However, recently the distance between terminals in semiconductors has been rapidly becoming smaller due to reduction in the pitch of wires, and it has become impossible to deal with this using the methods described above.
In addition, various arrangements have been introduced for terminals in recent years, and it has been necessary to flexibly deal with frequent change in the arrangement of terminals. Meanwhile, it is difficult to sufficiently meet this requirement using the above-described forming methods used at present.
As a method for solving these problems, formation of a probe through inkjet has been attempted. Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a method in which a liquid composition containing a conductive material is ejected onto a substrate, the droplet is left to be solidified on the substrate, and the composition is stacked by repeating the ejection, to give a bump. However, in accordance with this method, layers are stacked while being sintered one by one, and therefore, it takes too much time to give a structure having a sufficient height. In addition, the amount of droplets ejected onto the substrate cannot be reduced, and therefore, formation of fine bumps is difficult and the requirement for reducing the pitch of terminals of semiconductors cannot be met.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-218149 (“JP-A” means unexamined published Japanese patent application)